"Tom & Jerry" history question?

Question

Does anyone out there know or remember whether the "Tom & Jerry" cartoons were shown to mostly black audiences? I know there's a recurrent character who's the black "lady of the house", and that those wouldn't likely have been shown to white audiences at the time (1940's)... I'm also wondering if the black woman's voice was done over for the Cartoon Network, etc. I've watched these for my whole life, and somehow I remember her voice being different when I was younger... (I'm 30).

Answer 1

Actually, in its earlier years (1950's) the series was created for theatrical release (cartoon with your movie), and was seen by a very wide audience. The character you are thinking of was "Mammy Two Shoes," the heavyset black housemaid that had to deal with the mayhem. She was based upon common racial stereotypes at the time, and due to the less than politically correct nature of the portrayal, was often edited out, dubbed out, or reanimated with skinny white legs in later releases.

I remember seeing really old cartoons (non-Tom and Jerry) on the independent channels when I was a kid (the copyright had expired, so they were cheap for the station), and in hindsight I realize how incredibly racist most of them were.

Answer 2

Mammy-Two-Shoes appears in the first episode of Tom and Jerry and then has 17 more appearances through 1952. She changes very little and her voice was pretty much always the same (voiced by Lillian Randolph). You never see her face and her chin appears only once, in "Part Time Pal."

Answer 3

I remember Tom and Jerry on TV as a kid and I lived in rural Canada, not a large Afro-Canadian influence here, in fact most of the people that we have here that have imigrated from Africa are white. So sorry but I don't think that this cartoon in particulare was "racially" influenced.

Answer 4

I used to like Tom & Jerry too.

Answer 5

The way I remember it, the lady was the house maid.

Answer 6

All cartoons were shown to EVERYBODY!!